• We were not provided a geographic focus for this project, so we assumed a broad approach and looked globally. If a more targeted approach is desired, for example, the United States, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.

Hopin

• Britain’s Hopin announced that it’s raised $125 million in a round of funding that values the firm at more than $2 billion.
• The company saw a spike in growth this year as the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of several major conferences.
• That growth is translating into revenues, with Hopin claiming to generate over $20 million in annual recurring revenue.
• The London-based firm’s software allows conference hosts to run their gatherings online, aiming to emulate the experience of a physical event with tools for virtual talks and networking.
• It’s gone from 5,000 registered users to 3.5 million in the last eight months, while the number of organizations hosting events on its platform skyrocketed from 1,800 to 50,000. Some of its most notable clients include NATO, the UN, Slack and Salesforce, which is also an investor in the company.
• According to Crunchbase, Hopin has had 2 acquisitions. StreamYard was acquired by Hopin for $250M on January 7th, 2021, and on December 21st, 2020, Hopin acquired Topi for an undisclosed amount of money.
• Hopi has had 4 funding rounds totaling $171.4M. There was a Nov 10, 2020 Series B round of $125M, on June 25th, 2020 there was a Series A round at $40M, on February 20th, 2020, there was a seed round of 5M pounds [Sterling], and on October 10th, 2019 there was a pre-seed round of an undisclosed amount. 
• Hopin is funded by 18 investors. Coatue and Northzone are the most recent investors.

Other Virtual Event Companies/Platforms

•  Welcome, Bizzabo, Run the World, Bevy, BlueJeans, Hubilo, Airmeet, and Wonder [no relation to this platform that is doing this research] are eight virtual event companies/platforms that we were able to identify in the initial hour of research. We verified their veracity, but we did not have enough time to provide any data surrounding them.

Summary Of Our Early Findings Relevant To The Goals

• As discussed at the top of this document, we were not provided a geographic focus for this project, so we assumed a broad approach and looked globally. If a more targeted approach is desired, for example, the United States, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.
• In the initial hour of research we were able to provide complete details for one virtual event platform company called Hopin. It is of note that debt financing was not located for this company. We provided the only 2 acquisitions Hopin has had, along with all the publicly available financial data. There were no mergers.
• Additionally, in the initial hour of research, we were also able to locate eight additional virtual event platform/companies, but given time constraints could only verify their veracity. We did not have the time to provide the data required. We feel there are more of these companies, but again, given time constraints we were not able to provide them. This will be reflected in our scoping below.
• As a reminder, Wonder only uses publicly available sources. We do not have access to paid databases or paywalled reports, but we can cite them in research for reference only [in case purchase is desired]. If that is of interest, that would clearly have to be communicated to us in any reply. However, no indication of paid resources to add value to this research was seen in the discovery phase.
• Please select one or more of the options provided in the proposed scoping section below.